In this image made available by the Syrian News Agency on March 19, 2013, medics check a woman at a hospital in the Khan al-Assal region in the northern Aleppo province, as Syria's government accused rebel forces of using chemical weapons (AFP Photo / SANA) / AFP

Samples taken at the Syrian town where chemical weapons were allegedly used indicate that it was rebels - not the Syrian army - behind the attack, Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin has said.

Russia has handed over the analyzed samples to the UN, he added.

“I have just passed the analysis of samples taken at the site
of the chemical attack to the UN Secretary General (Ban
Ki-moon),” Churkin said on Tuesday.

Evidence studied by Russian scientists indicates that a
projectile carrying the deadly nerve agent sarin was most likely
fired at Khan al-Assal by the rebels, Churkin pointed out.

“It was determined that on March 19 the rebels fired an
unguided missile Bashair-3 at the town of Khan al-Assal, which
has been under government control. The results of the analysis
clearly show that the shell used in Khan al-Assal was not factory
made and that it contained sarin,” he said.

Churkin added that the contents of the shell “didn’t contain
chemical stabilizers in the toxic substance,” and therefore
“is not a standard chemical charge.” The RDX - an
explosive nitroamine commonly used for industrial and military
applications - found in the warhead was not consistent with what
the armed forces use.

According to Moscow, the manufacture of the ‘Bashair-3’ warheads
started in February, and is the work of Bashair al-Nasr, a
brigade with close ties to the Free Syrian Army.

Churkin stressed that unlike other reports which have been handed
to the UN, the samples were taken by Russian experts at the
scene, without any third party involvement.

More than 30 people died in the Khan
al-Assal incident in the northern province of Aleppo in
March. Damascus was the first to ask for the UN investigation,
accusing opposition fighters of launching a chemical weapon
attack. Syrian rebel groups denied the accusations, in turn
blaming government forces.

However, the UN investigation has largely become stalled after a
group of Western nations insisted on launching an inquiry into a
separate case of alleged chemical weapons use in Homs in December
2012. The inquiry requires access to military objects, which
Damascus has been unwilling to give.

The UN has also decided to exclude Russian and Chinese experts
from the investigation team, with Syria
protesting this decision.

So far, the UN commission of inquiry for Syria has not found any conclusive evidence proving that
either side of the conflict used chemical weapons. This is
despite several reports submitted by the US, UK and France, which
claim to show that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces used
such weapons.

Syria finds enough chemicals to ‘destroy the whole country’

The Syrian government invited chief UN chemical weapons
investigator Ake Sellstrom and UN disarmament chief Angela Kane
for talks in Damascus on Monday, announcing that a rebels-linked
storage site containing piles of dangerous chemicals had been
discovered.

“The Syrian authorities have discovered yesterday in the city
of Banias 281 barrels filled with dangerous, hazardous chemical
materials,” Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari said, adding
that the chemicals were “capable of destroying a whole city,
if not the whole country.”

The chemicals, which included monoethylene glycol and
polyethylene glycol, were found in a storage site used by
“armed terrorist groups,” Ja’afari explained. He said that
Syria has started an investigation into the discovery.

The Syrian envoy expressed Damascus’ confidence that there will
be “constructive negotiations with the Syrian officials in
order to reach an agreement,” particularly in terms of
“reference, mechanism, and time frame” of the UN mission.

Ja’afari added, however, that one should not “jump to
the conclusion” that the Monday invitation means that Syria
would consider allowing the UN team access to sites beyond
Aleppo.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman, Martin Nesirky,
reacted by calling the invitation “a move in the right
direction,” but did not say whether UN investigators would
accept it. The UN has been demanding that Sellstrom’s team be
granted access across Syria “without further delay and without
conditions,” ordering the Aleppo investigation not to begin
until those demands were reached.

‘No credible reporting that rebels used chemical weapons’?

Following Churkin’s announcement, both US and UK officials voiced
their disbelief over any evidence suggesting that Syrian rebels
used chemical weapons, stating they have yet been unable to see
the whole report of Russia’s UN envoy.

The US has “yet to see any evidence that backs up the
assertion that anybody besides the Syrian government has the
ability to use chemical weapons, has used chemical weapons,”
White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

When asked whether Washington had seen the Russian report, Carney
replied that it had not.

The UK also voiced its skepticism regarding the report, stating
that it didn’t believe the opposition could have obtained
chemical weapons.

“We will examine whatever is presented to us, but to date we
have seen no credible reporting of chemical weapons use by the
Syrian opposition, or that the opposition have obtained chemical
weapons,” BBC quoted a UK government spokesman as saying.